Treatment of web feeds as work assignment in a contact center

ABSTRACT

To provide an enhanced customer service experience, various combinations of web searches, site-specific filtering tools and syndicated feed readers can be used to find relevant posts on the internet. Internal email, IM, phone, and the like can cooperate with an appropriately equipped expert-finding solution to assist with help in locating the experts qualified to respond to the post(s). The leveraging of RSS/Atom feeds or similar technology, content analysis, and contact center work distribution algorithms are leveraged to monitor the feeds from multiple sites and automatically distribute messages to appropriately skilled contact center agents. Each message discovered is analyzed to determine which contact center queue it is to be routed to, and then the contact center assigns it to an appropriate agent. This eliminates or significantly reduces the amount of manual searching and qualification of posts.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

One exemplary aspect of the present invention is directed towardcommunications, and more specifically toward addressingquestions/comments posted on the Internet in a contact center. Even moreparticularly, one exemplary aspect is directed toward routing to one ormore customer service agents questions/comments from web feeds that aredistributed via work assignments to one or more queues in a contactcenter such that the questions/comments can be addressed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Some companies assign resources to monitor blogs, Twitter®, discussionforums related to the company's products and services, etc. Some haveestablished a presence on Facebook® with someone assigned to monitor it.Even company-sponsored forums require someone to actively monitor them.There are multiple ways to monitor these sites for activity related to acompany and its products and services:

-   -   1. Use each site's primary web interface. This can be time        consuming as it requires manually browsing the site, perhaps        using search features, with each site presenting a different        user experience.    -   2. Use tools provided by or for each site to filter content.        Twitter® in particular has an active third party developer base        that uses the Twitter® API to find content of interest, such as        tweetScan®. This may allow automating of some of the search        capabilities, but it is specific to the Twitter® site, so        different tools with different capabilities would be used.    -   3. Many websites (blogs, discussion forums, Twitter®) provide        feeds using RSS or Atom, so a person monitoring more than one        service might use a feed reader, and then manually search for        posts that require a response and forward them to an appropriate        company representative. Filtering capabilities in the feed        reader may be used to further identify specific posts that        require attention.    -   4. Use a general tool such as Google® Alerts®, which monitors        many web sources (e.g., news, web, blogs, video, groups . . . )        for specified search terms and deliver the results as an email        or RSS/Atom feed. This is similar to No. 3 above, but it does        not currently support Twitter® and may not monitor every blog of        interest. Mysyndicaat.com is a similar service that aggregates        content from websites, discussion forums and blogs based on        keyword searches and provides the output in a viewer page or as        an RSS/Atom feed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With the emergence of Web 2.0, traditional customer service channels arebeing bypassed as people seek assistance through the web usingunsponsored message forums, blogs, Twitter®, Facebook®,GetSatisfaction®, and the like. Questions and complaints about acompany's products and services may go unnoticed by a company becausethe company is not paying attention to these “Customer Service 2.0”channels.

Unlike a company sponsored site, which may categorize posts based onspecific products and services, posts discovered by the above techniqueswill typically not be categorized by the user—the end user may justenter a complaint or question about the company on Twitter® orGetSatisfaction®. The company representative who discovers that commentwill need to analyze it to determine if it needs a response, anddetermine who in the company is best qualified to provide that response,usually through an email or IM. The responder then needs to get theresponse back onto the source site where the comment was originallydiscovered. This may require a lot of coordination between the peopleassigned to monitor the Internet for the company, and the peoplequalified to address specific questions and complaints.

Accordingly, in accordance with one exemplary aspect of the presentinvention, various combinations of web searches, site-specific filteringtools and syndicated feed readers can be used to find relevant posts.Internal email, IM, phone, and the like can cooperate with anappropriately equipped expert-finding solution to assist with help inlocating the experts qualified to respond to the post(s).

In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the leveraging ofRSS/Atom fees or similar technology, content analysis, and contactcenter work distribution algorithms are leveraged to monitor the feedsfrom multiple sites and automatically distribute messages toappropriately skilled contact center agents. Each message discovered isanalyzed to determine which contact center queue it is to be routed to,and then the contact center assigns it to an appropriate agent. Thiseliminates or significantly reduces the amount of manual searching andqualification of posts.

RSS/Atom offers some advantages because the vast majority of socialnetworking sites publish RSS or Atom feeds, so a generic implementationwould work with the majority of sites. However, a typical embodimentcould also provide a connector to a specific site that has a publishedAPI, either because that site does not provide an RSS/Atom feed, or theAPI includes a richer amount of data that could enhance the datagathered.

In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, a number of feeds couldbe aggregated into a rules-based analysis engine, which filters theindividual messages and routes them to one or more contact centerqueues. Different queues may be targeted depending on which products orservices were mentioned, or whether the post appears to be a complaintvs. a complement that may require a different response priority orspecial skills. Different queues may be targeted based on the sourcetype: for example, one set of agents could be trained to monitorTwitter® and blogs, while another monitors Facebook®. Another queue maydirect those messages that mention a specific well-known bug to anautomated agent that replies with the fix, or the like.

The analysis engine would look for duplicate posts (such as the sameperson making the same complaint on multiple forums) and applyappropriate treatment, e.g., ignore the duplicates, or treat it as ahigher priority, and ensure a single response gets to all the sources.

The analysis engine could discard messages that appear to not require aresponse, for example, posts that refer to a company news articlewithout any significant additional content.

In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, speech analysis andspeech-to-text could be leveraged to monitor podcasts, YouTube® videosand the like. These tools could be used to discover what people aresaying about a particular company, in those media, and route them tocontact center agents (optionally along with the corresponding text) asappropriate.

Using contact center technology also includes the use of contact centerreporting and analytics to measure effectiveness of feed monitoring.Reports could show how and where a company's name and products are beingmentioned, and how responsive agents are at responding to those posts.Various metric-based reports could then be generated based on ananalysis of these factors.

One exemplary advantage of an embodiment of this invention is it allowsthe elimination of manual monitoring of multiple web sites and feeds.Discovery of messages and initial qualification can be automated, withcontact center technology utilized to find the best responder. Reportingand analytics can allow measuring of the effectiveness of the monitoringof the various feeds.

In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, RSS/Atom or similarautomated data feeds are used as sources into a contact center, allowingmessages discovered around the Internet to be assigned to an appropriateagent, i.e., customer service agent and/or automatic response agent.Aggregation of feeds and content for speech analysis can be used tofacilitate these actions.

Additional aspects of the invention relate to aggregating informationposted on the Internet, optionally via one or more RSS feeds/Atom feeds,and filtering this information to determine whether an entity shouldengage in posting a follow-up post.

Additional aspects of the invention relate to analyzing, with forexample, the assistance of one or more of artificial intelligence, aneural network, and fuzzy logic, to determine whether a question/commentposted on the Internet requires a response.

Additional aspects of the invention relate to a Customer Service 2.0environment where an interaction center manages Internet posts todetermine if a response is required.

Additional aspects of the invention further relate to providingquestions/comments posted on the network to one or more of a customerservice agent and an auto response module.

Even further aspects of the invention relate to automaticallydetermining whether a question/comment has already received a responseand optionally reposting a previously generated answer.

Even further aspects of the invention relate to automaticallyidentifying one or more sources of information on the Internet forinclusion into an aggregator.

Even further aspects of the invention relate to using one or more toolsto search for a specific keyword(s) for use with the Customer Service2.0 application described herein.

The present invention can provide a number of advantages depending onthe particular configuration. These and other advantages will beapparent from the disclosure of the invention(s) contained herein.

The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at leastone of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B,or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising”, “including”, and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation done without material human input when theprocess or operation is performed. However, a process or operation canbe automatic even if performance of the process or operation uses humaninput, whether material or immaterial, received before performance ofthe process or operation. Human input is deemed to be material if suchinput influences how the process or operation will be performed. Humaninput that consents to the performance of the process or operation isnot deemed to be “material.”

The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to anytangible storage and/or transmission medium that participate inproviding instructions to a processor for execution. Such a medium maytake many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media,volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, forexample, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks. Volatile media includesdynamic memory, such as main memory. Common forms of computer-readablemedia include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk,magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, aCD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any otherphysical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, aFLASH-EPROM, a solid state medium like a memory card, any other memorychip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any othermedium from which a computer can read. A digital file attachment toe-mail or other self-contained information archive or set of archives isconsidered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storagemedium. When the computer-readable media is configured as a database, itis to be understood that the database may be any type of database, suchas relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like.

While circuit or packet-switched types of communications can be usedwith the present invention, the concepts and techniques disclosed hereinare applicable to other protocols.

Accordingly, the invention is considered to include a tangible storagemedium or distribution medium and prior art-recognized equivalents andsuccessor media, in which the software implementations of the presentinvention are stored.

The terms “determine,” “calculate” and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developedhardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, orcombination of hardware and software that is capable of performing thefunctionality associated with that element. Also, while the invention isdescribed in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciatedthat individual aspects of the invention can be separately claimed.

The preceding is a simplified summary of the invention to provide anunderstanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is neitheran extensive nor exhaustive overview of the invention and its variousembodiments. It is intended neither to identify key or critical elementsof the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention but topresent selected concepts of the invention in a simplified form as anintroduction to the more detailed description presented below. As willbe appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possibleutilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features setforth above or described in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The exemplary embodiments of the invention will be described in detail,with reference to the following figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary communications system according to thisinvention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart outlining an exemplary method for filteringinformation received from the Internet according to this invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart outlining an exemplary method for interactioncenter handling according to this invention; and

FIG. 4 is a flowchart outlining an exemplary method for auto respondingaccording to this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention will be described below in relation to a communicationsenvironment. Although well suited for use with circuit-switched orpacket-switched networks, the invention is not limited to use with anyparticular type of communications system or configuration of systemelements and those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosedtechniques may be used in any application in which it is desirable toprovide responses to internet posts. For example, the systems andmethods disclosed herein will also work well with SIP-basedcommunications systems and endpoints. Moreover, various endpoints usablewith the present invention can be any communications device such as aPC, telephone, speakerphone, cellular phone, SIP-enabled endpoint,softphone, PDA, conference system, video conference system, wired orwireless communication device, or in general any communications devicethat is capable of sending and/or receiving voice and/or datacommunications.

The exemplary systems and methods of this invention will also bedescribed in relation to software, modules, and associated hardware andnetwork(s). In order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presentinvention, the following description omits well-known structures,components and devices that may be shown in block diagram form, are wellknown, or are otherwise summarized.

For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It should beappreciated however, that the present invention may be practiced in avariety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary communications system according to thisinvention. The communications system 100, in addition to conventionaland well-known components, includes one or more web resources, such asblogs 110, discussion forums 120, social networking sites 130, news,web, blogs, video and group feeds 140, and one or more sites that havededicated APIs 160. Each of these resources can be associated with, forexample, an RSS/Atom feed 150, or comparable technology that allows thefeeding or forwarding of frequently updated works. A typical RSS enableddocument or site, which is also known as a web feed or channel, caninclude full or summarized text, plus metadata associated with aparticular feed. In general, information such as questions and commentscan be derived from any of the above information sources, and in generalfrom any endpoint(s) on the Internet including mash ups, portals, wikis,user-generated content, consumer-generated media, social media,industrial media, website(s), and the like.

Communication system 100 also includes an aggregator 210, filter module220, analysis module 230, artificial intelligence module 240, loginmodule 250, response formulation module 260, knowledge base 270, one ormore customer service agents (280-284) and an auto response module 290,all connected to an interaction center 200 that is connected via one ormore links 5 and networks 10 to the information sources.

In addition, the communications system 100 can include, for example, atext-to-speech (TTS) module, a speech-to-text (STT) module, a mediatranslation module that, for example, allows translation of a video intoa speech description thereof, and the like.

In operation, information from one or more of the information sources isforwarded, via links 5 and network 10, to the aggregator 210. Asdiscussed, the information from the information sources can be gatheredwith the assistance of one or more of RSS/Atom feeds, APIs, or inconjunction with a searching and alerting tool that searches forspecified predefined terms and delivers the results, for example, via anemail, SMS, or RSS/Atom feed, to the aggregator 210. This sametechnology could be applied to any type of multimedia content. Forexample, a company can enter their company name, product names, servicenames or the like, and have this alerting and forwarding service providethe information that contains any of these key terms to the aggregator210. The form of the supplied information can be in one or more oftextual, an email, a hyperlink, an SMS, an HTML-based communication, anRSS feed, via an API (Application programming Interface), or the like.

The interaction center 200 can in general be associated with any one ormore information sources, that include any type of information via text,multimedia-based, video, a combination of text and graphics, and thelike. Once these associations are made, the aggregator 210 beginsreceiving the information from the various information sources andaggregates all the disparate feeds. However, the interaction center 200need not necessarily be associated with an information source to receiveinformation therefrom. As discussed above, an agent could scan theinternet, or a portion thereof, looking for one or more terms that couldtrigger the forwarding of the discovered information to the aggregator210.

Appreciating that all this information may or may not require aresponse, the filter module 220, cooperating with the analysis module230 and AI module 240 filters the aggregated information beforeforwarding it to the interaction center 200. More specifically, a firstdetermination by the analysis module 230 could be whether or not thequestion or comment was already responded to. Another analysis could bewhether the information is the type of information that does not requirea response. Examples of this include, but are not limited to, pressreleases, general news articles, or in general any content that does notnecessarily require a response. To assist with this analysis, the AImodule 240 can include a dynamic feedback such that historical responsesmade on behalf of the interaction center 200 can also be used todetermine whether the filtering module 220 should filter out theinformation, or pass it on to the interaction center 200.

For example, if a company releases a press release that is thendisseminated to multiple information sources on the Internet, theaggregator 210 will probably receive these press releases in that one ormore keywords are present therein that triggers the aggregator 210 toforward that information to the filter module 220. In this particularinstance, since it is the company's own press release, clearly thecompany may not need to provide any response to that press release beingpublished on multiple websites. If however a disgruntled customer isposting multiple complaints on multiple different information sources,not only would the aggregator 210 forward that to the filter module 220for analysis, but in cooperation with the AI module 240, this particularcomplaint could optionally be flagged with a high priority flag forexpedited handling by the interaction center 200.

In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the filter module 220cooperates with the analysis module 230 and artificial intelligencemodel 240 as well as information in knowledge base 270, to assist withdetermining whether a particular comment/question has already beenanswered. To help ensure that what appears to be a duplicatecomment/question has already been answered, the analysis module 230 andAI module 240 could analyze one or more portions of the question/commentsuch as poster, IP address associated with the poster, subject line,content, signature, metadata, and in general any information associatedwith the comment/question. One or more portions of this information canbe compared to information stored in knowledge base 270 with, forexample, a weighting assigned that upon a certain number of thesecriteria matching, the determination made that the question/comment hasalready been responded to. If the question has already been respondedto, the interaction center 200, cooperating with the auto responsemodule 290, can optionally copy the previous answer to the informationsource as a reply. To perform this action, interaction center 200,cooperating with the login module 250, retrieves information about thesource and the necessary login information if it is needed. The autoresponse module 290, cooperating with the interaction center 200 andknowledge base 270, can submit the response e.g., post a reply, on thesource, that can optionally be reviewed before the reply is posted. Inaddition, this action can optionally be logged in the knowledge base 270and, in cooperation with the interaction center 200 flagged forfollow-up.

For example, the knowledge base 270 can track responses that are postedon one or more of the information sources. Then, cooperating with theinteraction center 200, at a specified date and time, the interactioncenter 200 could forward, for example, a link to an appropriate customerservice agent that allows follow-up to the previously posted response.This can be performed dynamically with the interaction center 200checking to see if any further responses have been posted subsequent tothe response being posted. If no subsequent responses have been posted,and in cooperation with the filter module 220, this flag could beremoved or pushed forward to a future date for a subsequent follow-up.

If the question/comment has not already been answered, the nextdetermination is whether an answer is required. For example, the filtermodule 220, again cooperating with the analysis module 230 and Al module240, can analyze the nature of the post and determine, for example,whether it is a question, whether it is a general comment, whether it iscomplementary or derogatory in nature, whether it is the type ofquestion the interaction center 200 should respond to, and in generalwhether it is the type of post that a user, such as a company, shouldrespond to.

If it is the type of posting that warrants a response, several differentoptions are available for handling that response. As previouslydiscussed, one option would be to copy a previous answer and post it asa reply. This reply could optionally be customized with the autoresponse module 290 cooperating with the response formulation module260. For example, a greeting could be specified based on, for example,information derived from the original posting as well as such things asformatting, font, style and the like customized based on, for example,the particular information source to which the response is beinguploaded to. In addition, standard information such as company name,contact information, as well as advertising could also be associatedwith a response posted by the interaction center 290.

Another determination that filter module 220, cooperating with theanalysis module 230 and AI module 240 could make, is whether agentassistance, such as a customer service agent (280-284), is required.This determination can be made, for example, based on whetherinteraction center 200, cooperating with the response formulation module260, knowledge base 270, and auto response module 290 is able toformulate a response, based on a set of rules, to a question or comment.Additional factors that could be taken into consideration whether agentassistance is required, is, for example, whether or not multiple postsare being received from multiple information sources regarding the sametopic or from the same poster. Other criteria that can be used to assistwith whether agent assistance is required is whether or not the questionor comment relates to a company sensitive issue, a priority associatedwith a particular topic or subject matter, the level of complexity ofthe comment or question, whether or not the analysis module 230 andartificial intelligence module 240 are able to determine what thecomment or question is about, or the like. If it is determined thatneither an automated response, nor agent handling is required, thedetermination to make this decision, and the information surrounding themaking of that decision, can be logged with a process ending.

Alternatively, if it is determined that agent assistance is required,the skills required to address the question or comment are determinedand then the question or comment forwarded to an agent queue forhandling by a customer service agent 280-284. These skills-based-routingqueues can be established in a similar manner to call centerarchitectures where multiple customer service agents, generally withspecific skill sets, are assigned to a specific queue to handle aspecific type of issue. One or more of the customer service agents canthen make a determination as to whether a response is required. If aresponse is not required, the process can end with the option of thedetermination of a response not being required, logged. Otherwise, adetermination can be made whether an automatic response could be used.

If a comment or question is placed in the auto response queue, similarto the process above described in relation to copying a previous answerto the source as a reply to an already answered question or responded tocomment, the auto response module 290 can determine an appropriateresponse. For example, if the exact same question had not already beenanswered, or, for example, a different response is required for the samequestion, the auto response module 290 can determine an appropriateresponse with, for example, the cooperation of the response formulationmodule 260 and knowledge base 270. Once an appropriate response isdetermined, source information is retrieved that includes sufficientinformation to allow the auto response module 290, in cooperation withthe interaction center 200, to post the response on the informationsource. In addition, and if required, login information for the sourcecan be obtained, that includes, for example, login name and password.Before the auto response module 290 posts the response, the response canoptionally be reviewed, for example, by a user, such as another customerservice agent, who has the option of authorizing the posting of theresponse.

The response can then be submitted with the response optionally beinglogged. Furthermore, and as discussed, the response can be flagged witha tag for following up at a later time.

If agent assistance is required, and once the comment or question isplaced in the appropriate queue for response, the question or commentremains in that queue until a customer service agent receives thequestion or comment. An initial check by the customer service agent(280-284) can be whether or not the comment or question is in theappropriate queue. If the comment or question is not in the appropriatequeue, the customer service agent can reassign the question or commentto an appropriate queue. Otherwise, the customer service agent candetermine an appropriate answer, utilizing additional outside resourcesif required. Having determined the appropriate answer, the customerservice agent cooperating with the interaction center 200 and loginmodule 250 obtains the necessary login information for the source.Additionally, before the response is submitted, the responsible customerservice agent can cooperate with the response formulation module 260 todetermine whether or not the response is in the appropriate format forthe particular source to which the response will be posted. As with theother type of responses, this response can optionally be reviewed by,for example, a peer or supervisor, prior to posting of the response onthe source.

Additionally, the response can be logged and tagged for follow-up asdiscussed herein.

FIG. 2 outlines an exemplary method of aggregating and filteringquestions or comments according to this invention. In particular controlbegins in step S200 and continues to step S205. In step S205, aninteraction center is associated with one or more sources. As discussed,these sources can include one or more of logs, discussion forums, socialnetworking sites, news feeds, web feeds, video feeds, discussion groups,sites having an API, and the like. Optionally, this association need notnecessarily be performed but rather an interaction center could beprovided with a tool that goes out and searches numerous informationsources for specific key words. Upon finding one or more of these keywords, a link, such as in an email, IM, or comparable message, could beforwarded from the tool to the interaction center. Then, in step S210,the interaction center begins receiving and aggregating the variousfeeds of information from the information sources. Control thencontinues to step S215.

In step S215, the interaction center commences filtering and an initialanalysis of the information from the various sources. Next, in stepS220, a determination is made whether a response has already beenprovided. If a response has been provided, control continues to stepS235. Otherwise, control jumps to step S225. In step S225, a furtherdetermination is made whether an answer is required. If an answer isrequired, control continues to step S230.

Otherwise, control continues to step S235 where a copy of the previousanswer can be copied to the source as a reply. Control then continues tostep S240.

In step S240, information pertaining to the source can be retrieved.This information includes, for example, IP address or URL, threadidentifier, or in general any information used to identify the locationof the question or comment. Then, if required, login information for theparticular source is obtained with the answer optionally being reviewedbefore it is posted as an answer in step S250.

Control then continues to step S255.

In step S255, the response or answer is submitted. Next, in step S260,the answer or response is optionally logged, and, in step S265,optionally tagged for follow-up. Control then continues to step S270where the control sequence ends.

FIG. 3 outlines an exemplary method of analyzing a question or commentaccording to this invention. In particular, control begins in step S300and continues to step S310. In step S310, the question or comment isanalyzed. Next, in step S320, a determination is made whether agentassistance is required. If agent assistance is required, controlcontinues to step S330. Otherwise, control jumps to step s370.

In step S330, the various skills required to address the question orcomment are determined, and then the question or comment is forwarded toan agent queue for determination if a response is required. If aresponse is not required, control continues to step S340 where thedecision not to respond can optionally be logged and the controlsequence ends.

Otherwise, if a response is required, control continues to step S350where the question or comment is placed in an appropriate queue for ananswer or response. Control then continues to step S360.

In step S370, and if agent assistance is not required, the comment orquestion can be placed into the auto response queue with controlcontinuing to step S380 where the control sequence ends.

FIG. 4 outlines an exemplary method of responding according to thisinvention. In particular, control begins in step S400 and continues tostep S405. In step S405, a determination is made whether the question orcomment is in the auto response queue. If the question or comment is inthe auto response queue, control continues to step S410 with controlotherwise jumping to step S455.

In step S410, an appropriate response is determined. As discussed, thisresponse can be based on one or more of information in a knowledge base,artificial intelligence, analysis of historical information andresponses, and in general any information available to the auto responsemodule. Next, in step S415, source information is retrieved to allowposting of the derived response in the appropriate location. Then, instep S420, login information if needed is obtained to assist withposting of the response. Control continues to step S425.

In step S425, the response can optionally be reviewed before it isposted. This review can be one or more of automatic or manual and theinteraction center may have a dedicated queue into which auto formulatedresponses are placed for approval prior to posting. Once ready, theresponse is submitted in step S430 with control continuing to step S435where the response is optionally logged and in step S440 where theresponse is optionally tagged for follow-up. Control then continues tostep S450 where the control sequence ends.

In step S455, a customer service agent receives the comment or question.Next, in step S460 the customer service agent determines whether or notthe question or comment is in the appropriate queue. If the question orcomment is not in the appropriate queue, control jumps to step S465where the question or comment can be assigned to a new queue withcontrol jumping back to step S405. Otherwise, control continues to stepS470 where the customer service agent determines an appropriate answer.Next, in step S475, source information is retrieved that allows theposting of the determined answer in the appropriate location. Then, instep S480, login information is optionally obtained to allow login tothe information source. Then, in step S485, the response is submitted.As with the other types of response, the generated response in step S470can optionally be reviewed by a peer or a supervisor of the like, forapproval. Control then continues to step S490. In step S490, theresponse is optionally logged and optionally tagged for follow-up instep S495. Control then continues to step S499 where the controlsequence ends.

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment that uses, for example, abulletin board service (BBS) to allow various users to post informationin a web forum, the response by the interaction center could operate asfollows. For example, in an HTML-based environment, the thread IDassociated with a comment or question could be similar to the following:

-   http://forum.xyzforum.com/tech/will-productx-work-with-product-y.html

This URL identifies the message thread by a unique ID(will-productx-work-with-product-y.html) which can be used by theinteraction center to facilitate posting of a response to a question orcomment therein. More specifically, and if a login is required, acustomer service agent could manually enter the login and passwordinformation provided by the login module into the appropriate formfields in the HTML page. Alternatively, and if for example theinteraction center is automatically responding to a question or comment,the auto response module, in cooperation with the login module, couldparse the HTML page and determine where the form tag is into which thelogin and password information is entered. Specifically, the loginmodule could tab through the HTML source and find the “form action” codeand then automatically insert the user name and password in theappropriate form fields. For example, the form action tag could besimilar to:

<form action=“http://forum.xyzforum.com/login.php?do=login”method=“post” onsubmit=“md5hash(vb_login_password, vb_login_md5password,vb_login_md5password_utf, 0)”>

Entry of the answer or response can be performed in a similar manner.For example, for a customer service agent, the customer service agentcan scroll down to the text entry field that allows entry of theresponse or answer. Upon completion of this response or answer, thecustomer service agent could click the “post reply” button at whichpoint the reply would be posted in the corresponding thread.

If the response or reply is automated, the auto response module couldlook for the text entry field by searching for, for example, the fieldset tags as illustrated below where the message is entered.

<div class=“smallfont”>Message:</div> <div id=“vB_Editor_QR”class=“vBulletin_editor”> <fieldset style=“border:0px; padding:0px;margin:0px”> <textarea name=“message” id=“vB_Editor_QR_textarea”rows=“10” cols=“60” style=“width:100%; height:100px” tabindex=“1”dir=“ltr”> </textarea> </fieldset

Then, in a similar manner, the auto response module could tab through tofind the “form action” tag where the “method=post” action is selected tosubmit the reply to the forum (See example below). Similar methodologiescan be used for the various types of information sources, with theidentification of the various fields adjusted to accommodate for thetype of information source onto which the response or answer will beposted. These basic concepts can also be extended to specialized orcustom APIs with one or more of the auto response module, login module,and customer service agent navigating to the appropriate portion of thegraphical user interface and entering the appropriate information, andselecting the appropriate button to facilitate one or more of login,posting of a reply, or the like.

-   <form    action=“http://forum.xyzforum.com/newreply.php?do=postreply&amp;t=282212”method=“post”name=“vbform”onsubmit=“return    qr_prepare_submit(this, 5);”id=“qrform”>

A number of variations and modifications of the invention can be used.It would be possible to provide or claim for some features of theinvention without providing or claiming others.

The exemplary systems and methods of this invention have been describedin relation to customer service 2.0. However, to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring the present invention, the description omits a number of knownstructures and devices. This omission is not to be construed as alimitation of the scope of the claimed invention. Specific details areset forth to provide an understanding of the present invention. Itshould however be appreciated that the present invention may bepracticed in a variety of ways beyond the specific detail set forthherein.

Furthermore, while the exemplary embodiments illustrated herein showvarious components of the system collocated; certain components of thesystem can be located remotely, at distant portions of a distributednetwork, such as a LAN, cable network, and/or the Internet, or within adedicated system. Thus, it should be appreciated, that the components ofthe system can be combined in to one or more devices, such as a gateway,or collocated on a particular node of a distributed network, such as ananalog and/or digital communications network, a packet-switch network, acircuit-switched network or a cable network.

It will be appreciated from the preceding description, and for reasonsof computational efficiency, that the components of the system can bearranged at any location within a distributed network of componentswithout affecting the operation of the system. For example, the variouscomponents can be located in a switch such as a PBX and media server,gateway, a cable provider, enterprise system, in one or morecommunications devices, at one or more users' premises, or somecombination thereof. Similarly, one or more functional portions of thesystem could be distributed between a communications device(s) and anassociated computing device.

Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the various links, such aslink 5, connecting the elements can be wired or wireless links, or anycombination thereof, or any other known or later developed element(s)that is capable of supplying and/or communicating data to and from theconnected elements. These wired or wireless links can also be securelinks and may be capable of communicating encrypted information.Transmission media used as links, for example, can be any suitablecarrier for electrical signals, including coaxial cables, copper wireand fiber optics, and may take the form of acoustic or light waves, suchas those generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications.

Also, while the flowcharts have been discussed and illustrated inrelation to a particular sequence of events, it should be appreciatedthat changes, additions, and omissions to this sequence can occurwithout materially affecting the operation of the invention.

In yet another embodiment, the systems and methods of this invention canbe implemented in conjunction with a special purpose computer, aprogrammed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integratedcircuit element(s), an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digitalsignal processor, a hard-wired electronic or logic circuit such asdiscrete element circuit, a programmable logic device or gate array suchas PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, special purpose computer, any comparable means,or the like. In general, any device(s) or means capable of implementingthe methodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the variousaspects of this invention.

Exemplary hardware that can be used for the present invention includescomputers, handheld devices, telephones (e.g., cellular, Internetenabled, digital, analog, hybrids, and others), and other hardware knownin the art. Some of these devices include processors (e.g., a single ormultiple microprocessors), memory, nonvolatile storage, input devices,and output devices. Furthermore, alternative software implementationsincluding, but not limited to, distributed processing orcomponent/object distributed processing, parallel processing, or virtualmachine processing can also be constructed to implement the methodsdescribed herein.

In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be readilyimplemented in conjunction with software using object or object-orientedsoftware development environments that provide portable source code thatcan be used on a variety of computer or workstation platforms.Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implemented partially orfully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSI design. Whethersoftware or hardware is used to implement the systems in accordance withthis invention is dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirementsof the system, the particular function, and the particular software orhardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems beingutilized.

In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be partiallyimplemented in software that can be stored on a storage medium, executedon programmed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of acontroller and memory, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, orthe like. In these instances, the systems and methods of this inventioncan be implemented as a program embedded on personal computer such as anapplet, JAVA® or CGI script, as a resource residing on a server orcomputer workstation, as a routine embedded in a dedicated measurementsystem, system component, or the like. The system can also beimplemented by physically incorporating the system and/or method into asoftware and/or hardware system.

Although the present invention describes components and functionsimplemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standardsand protocols, the invention is not limited to such standards andprotocols. Other similar standards and protocols not mentioned hereinare in existence and are considered to be included in the presentinvention. Moreover, the standards and protocols mentioned herein andother similar standards and protocols not mentioned herein areperiodically superseded by faster or more effective equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Such replacement standards and protocolshaving the same functions are considered equivalents included in thepresent invention.

The present invention, in various embodiments, configurations, andaspects, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/orapparatus substantially as depicted and described herein, includingvarious embodiments, subcombinations, and subsets thereof. Those ofskill in the art will understand how to make and use the presentinvention after understanding the present disclosure. The presentinvention, in various embodiments, configurations, and aspects, includesproviding devices and processes in the absence of items not depictedand/or described herein or in various embodiments, configurations, oraspects hereof, including in the absence of such items as may have beenused in previous devices or processes, e.g., for improving performance,achieving ease and\or reducing cost of implementation.

The foregoing discussion of the invention has been presented forpurposes of illustration and description. The foregoing is not intendedto limit the invention to the form or forms disclosed herein. In theforegoing Detailed Description for example, various features of theinvention are grouped together in one or more embodiments,configurations, or aspects for the purpose of streamlining thedisclosure. The features of the embodiments, configurations, or aspectsof the invention may be combined in alternate embodiments,configurations, or aspects other than those discussed above. This methodof disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention thatthe claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recitedin each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventiveaspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosedembodiment, configuration, or aspect. Thus, the following claims arehereby incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separate preferred embodiment of the invention.

Moreover, though the description of the invention has includeddescription of one or more embodiments, configurations, or aspects andcertain variations and modifications, other variations, combinations,and modifications are within the scope of the invention, e.g., as may bewithin the skill and knowledge of those in the art, after understandingthe present disclosure. It is intended to obtain rights which includealternative embodiments, configurations, or aspects to the extentpermitted, including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalentstructures, functions, ranges or steps to those claimed, whether or notsuch alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions,ranges or steps are disclosed herein, and without intending to publiclydedicate any patentable subject matter.

1. An enhanced customer service method comprising: receiving andaggregating a plurality of messages that were posted on the internet,the plurality of messages: received from at least two different sources,being received based on an identification of one or more predefinedterms, and being one or more message types; filtering the plurality ofmessages; analyzing, with the cooperation of one or more of a processorand analysis module, the content of the plurality of messages; and,based on the analysis, performing one or more of: automaticallyresponding to one or more of the plurality of messages, forwarding oneor more of the plurality of messages to a customer service agent, andlogging an indication of any action taken in response to the receipt,filtering and analysis of one or more of the plurality of messages. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the different sources are one or more ofblogs, discussion forums, social networking sites, news feeds, webfeeds, blog feeds, video feeds, group feeds, RSS feeds andinternet-based sites with an API and the message types include one ormore of text, multimedia, video and a combination of text and graphics.3. The method of claim 1, further comprising routing one or more of theplurality of messages to an appropriate queue for handling by thecustomer service agent.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the analysisincludes one or more of determining if a response has already beenprovided, determining a priority for one or more messages, determiningif one or more of the plurality of messages are sensitive, determiningif one or more of the plurality of messages requires a response,determining if one or more of the plurality of messages are from thesame person, determining if one or more of the plurality of messagesinclude one or more keywords and comparing content of one or more of theplurality of messages to information in a knowledge base.
 5. The methodof claim 1, further comprising automatically formulating a response toone or more of the plurality of messages.
 6. The method of claim 1,further comprising maintaining login information for one or moreinformation sources from which the plurality of messages are received.7. The method of claim 1, further comprising utilizing an API tointeract with an information source from which the plurality of messagesare received.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding to thecustomer service agent is based on skills-based routing techniques.
 9. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage media having stored thereoninstructions for performing the steps of claim
 1. 10. One or more meansfor performing the steps of claim
 1. 11. An enhanced customer servicesystem comprising: an aggregator that receives a plurality of messagesthat were posted on the interne, the plurality of messages: receivedfrom at least two different sources, being received based on anidentification of one or more predefined terms, and being one or moremessage types; a filter module that filters the plurality of messages;one or more of an analysis module and artificial intelligent modulethat, with the cooperation of a processor, analyze the content of theplurality of messages; and, based on the analysis: an auto responsemodule automatically responds to one or more of the plurality ofmessages, an interaction center forwards one or more of the plurality ofmessages to a customer service agent, or a logging module logs anindication of any action taken in response to the receipt, filtering andanalysis of one or more of the plurality of messages.
 12. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the different sources are from one or more of blogs,discussion forums, social networking sites, news feeds, web feeds, blogfeeds, video feeds, group feeds, RSS feeds and internet-based sites withan API and the message types include one or more of text, multimedia,video and a combination of text and graphics.
 13. The system of claim11, wherein the interaction center routes one or more of the pluralityof messages to an appropriate queue for handling by the customer serviceagent.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the analysis includes one ormore of determining if a response has already been provided, determininga priority for one or more of the plurality of messages, determining ifone or more of the plurality of messages are sensitive, determining ifone or more of the plurality of messages requires a response,determining if one or more of the plurality of messages are from thesame person, determining if one or more of the plurality of messagesinclude one or more keywords and comparing content of one or more of theplurality of messages to information in a knowledge base.
 15. The systemof claim 11, further comprising a response formulation module thatcooperates with the auto response module to automatically formulate aresponse to one or more of the plurality of messages.
 16. The system ofclaim 11, wherein login information for one or more information sourcesfrom which the plurality of messages are received is stored in a loginmodule.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the interaction centerutilizes an API to interact with an information source from which theplurality of messages are received.
 18. The system of claim 11, whereinthe forwarding to the customer service agent is based on skills-basedrouting techniques.
 19. The system of claim 11, further comprising aknowledge base that is used to assist with the filtering, analysis, autoresponse and routing.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein one or more ofthe plurality of messages are automatically received by the aggregator.